1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a surveillance system to indicate the presence of wild animals within a surveillance area defined by detected infrared radiation that is radiated and detected by the same monitor. More particularly, the present invention relates to such a system wherein the plurality of such monitors contains not only the infrared emitter and detector, but also a RF transmitter for allowing a determination including recordation of the presence of animals, for example, a game animal within the surveillance area throughout a period a time without the actual presence of a human to thereby avoid disturbing the animals and leaving tail tale scent or other disturbances which might have an adverse effect to the wild habitat of the surveillance area.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the natural habitat of wild animals, man's presence usually brings about a self-defensive reaction of flight by most animals to a different location. It is not practical to camouflage a person desiring to conceal their presence in habitat of wild life. Monitoring the movement of game by sportsman is a common practice well known in history. The desire to monitor the movements of animals in the natural habitat is shared not only persons desiring to conduct studies of nature but also sportsmen. The present invention is equally operable to both hunters and naturalists including conservationist. They have long been aware that deer and other animals are creatures of habit since, for example, the animals instinctively follow trails that link their movement patterns during bedding, feeding, watering or "in the rut" and as such the animals behave according to predictable patterns. Other creatures in nature are known to sportsman, particularly tournament bass fisherman who also capitalize by eliminating unproductive waters by use of graph recorders.
Devices are known in the art for monitoring and recording the movement of large game animals, such as deer. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,128,548 there is disclosed a large game monitoring and recording device which transmits a laser beam between two points and records the time and date the beam was broken. The device is used for determining game trails. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,615,624; 4,748,601; and 5,121,367 disclose game trail monitors designed to record time and direction of the game passing through an area. U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,367 discloses a trip line which is connected to a pull pin and exerts a direct pull on the pin when engaged by a passing animal so that the position of the pin when pulled free indicates the direction the animal was traveling. A trip line detecting system suffers from the disadvantage that once a passing animal trips the line and the pull pin is pulled free, another animal in the same area will disturb the direction of the pulled pin thus giving erroneous information.
Such known systems for monitoring game trails suffer the disadvantage that the monitoring process requires the presence of the sportsman at the monitor or at each of the monitors, in the event of a plurality of monitors, to access the results when the monitor takes the form of a string traversing a suspected game trail. Only a single event can be recorded for discovery and at a later time by the sportsman. When the monitor involves the use of infrared energy, there is a common requirement that the sportsman access the results of the monitor at the suspected trail sight. Such monitors, whether of the string type or the infrared type, that provide surveillance of a trail are designed to only respond to activity along that suspected trail. In other words, an animal which may depart from the trail if only for a few feet is undetected.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a hunter with an alert signal advising the hunter of the presence of a game animal in a surveillance area which includes not only a suspected trail but surrounding areas by a transmitted radio signal from a receiver carrier remote to the surveillance site.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a system for monitoring the movement of game animals by providing at least one preferably a plurality of passive infrared motion detectors including an IR emitter and detector within a transportable housing also containing a transmitter than can be strategically place in a surveillance area to provide a radio frequency signal to a receiver indicative of the activity within the surveillance area of the monitor.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus to monitor a surveillance area for detecting the movement of game in which a monitor responsive to such movement emits an RF signal for detection by a receiver which in turn provides a signal that can be either audio or vision indicative of such activity in the surveillance area.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a monitor for game in the wild habitat which can transmit by a RF medium to a receiver distantly situated from the surveillance area to receive and record alert signals from a monitor preferably a plurality of monitors: each such alert signal being tagged with identifying indicia such as the time, date, direction and monitor identification.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a monitor for the surveillance area for the natural habitat for the game in which a plurality of diversely directed and distinctively encoded infrared beams are emitted for detection of the presence and the direction of entrance of animals to the surveillance area.